Kevin Selfe

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Kevin Selfe

In a world of teenage guitar prodigies, Kevin Selfe learned to play the guitar at a relatively late age while studying Meteorology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. “I had plenty of time to practice in my dorm room,” Kevin explains, “because my major was not real popular with the ladies.” His roommate – who also played bass - introduced Kevin to this whole new world of music that he wasn’t aware of. While everybody else was into the grunge thing, Selfe was listening to Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Elmore James. It was like this big light suddenly went on in his head. After graduating Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Meteorology in 1995, Selfe felt like there was something missing, something else calling him. It was then that he decided to abandon a potential career as a weatherman and pursue the music that now consumed his soul, the blues.

In 1997 at the age of 23, Selfe joined the regionally popular Fat Daddy Band based out of his hometown of Roanoke, Virginia. During his tenure with them, the band won the Charlotte Blues Society’s 2001 Talent Competition and was a finalist at the Blues Foundation’s 2002 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee. After spending six busy years touring the South and recording 3 CDs, Kevin left Fat Daddy and joined forces with fellow Virginia bluesman, Rodger Crowder, forming Little Rodger and the Cheap Thrills in 2003. Over the next two years Kevin continued touring, regularly performing at some of the nation’s best blues clubs. In early 2005, Kevin decided it was time to pursue a solo career and formed his own group, Kevin Selfe and the Tornadoes. The band quickly became known as one of the tightest and most energetic blues outfits around. Selfe relocated to the blues hotbed of Portland, Oregon in February 2007 and assembled a West Coast version of the Tornadoes.

In five short years Kevin Selfe and the Tornadoes have become a Northwest favorite, having been inducted into the Cascade Blues Association Hall of Fame in late 2012, as well as becoming an eight-time Muddy Awards recipient, including prestigious awards for Traditional Blues Act of the Year (2012, 2011, 2010) and Contemporary Blues Act of the Year (2009). In early 2011, the band welcomed legendary blues drummer and 14-time Blues Music Award nominee Jimi Bott, whose own home studio was utilized for Selfe’s Delta Groove debut. "Long Walk Home" features 11 original compositions demonstrating Selfe’s musical depth and diversity with forays into West Coast, Texas, Chicago and Delta blues, along with top-notch support by veteran blues and roots musicians, including Delta Groove labelmate Mitch Kashmar on vocals and harmonica, Gene Taylor (The Fabulous Thunderbirds, The Blasters) on piano, Allen Markel (The Insomniacs) on bass, Jimi Bott (Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers, The Mannish Boys) on drums, and Doug James (Roomful of Blues, Jimmie Vaughan) on baritone sax.